A series about a young family’s search for that first resale home.
The house hunting has officially begun.
Craig and I have looked through Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation’s guide to home buying, including “Check if you are financially ready to own a home” and “Find the right home.”
We’ve researched what to ask when viewing a house and how to spot signs of potential problems in a home.
We’ve created our list of must-haves and would-be-nices. Top of the list: 3 or more bedrooms, little to no carpet (allergies!), a finished basement, proximity to at least a few amenities, and a backyard.
And we’ve signed our agreement with the mortgage broker and considered the neighbourhoods we’d like to live in, based mostly on ease of public transit, proximity to schools, and that we want to move east as it’s closer to my parents. (Want to know what to expect from a mortgage broker? Find out here.)
We start viewing homes
Although I have been browsing listings for months, we finally put all our preparation to work and headed out recently for some house hunting in person, accompanied by our real estate agent and our 2½-year-old daughter, Tilly. (Find out here what your real estate agent needs to know about you.)
We approached the outing as practice. We knew it was unlikely we would find the perfect house on our first try. What we wanted was a sense of what houses in our price range look like and to start figuring out in greater detail what we both want in a home.
Armed with a list of questions and a mixture of trepidation and excitement, we set out on a Saturday morning.
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What we saw when house hunting
We saw three houses: one near Mooney’s Bay and two in Beacon Hill-Cyrville.
Two of the houses were mid-century bungalows. Turns out we don’t want an older bungalow. This was a surprise to me. Before actually looking in person, I had thought that I wanted an older suburban house with slanted floors and a linoleum kitchen because I have always liked those neighbourhoods and wanted a house with character. I was surprised to discover that what we would both prefer is a newer house that requires little maintenance.
I was also surprised to find that despite my romantic visions of playing in an expansive backyard with my daughter – no doubt fueled by having grown up in the country myself – I would actually be content with a smaller space that requires less work.
So the new row house (built in 2003) with the postage stamp-sized lawn was the winner of the day. The kitchen was so shiny; the furnace, water heater and roof brand new; the price low ($370,000). Being in that house made me feel calm because I knew that there were unlikely to be any major issues or renovations required for a long while. Tilly even said that she “liked the house with all the stairs.”
But it also wasn’t quite right. The neighbourhood was a bit too busy, the bedrooms a bit too small, but more than anything, it’s just a bit too soon.
Fish in the sea
So I told our agent we didn’t want to put in an offer.
My family assures me that houses are like buses, fish in the sea, used cars: there’s no shortage. Right now – maybe because it’s winter, maybe because resale inventory in Ottawa has dropped off over the past year – there’s a dearth of homes available. But we are determined not to let that panic or fluster us, even in the face of rising interest rates. We’re hoping the end of winter will bring us more choice.
Until then, I will be obsessively combing listings.
